Dallas Tennis Blog....RIP ???

Time for 40s... Cold Weather and Old People Muscles/Joints... What Could go Wrong?

Happy New Years and Brrrrrr.....  It is January so that means it is time for 40s.  Those players that are struggling to compete with whippersnappers get their moment.  For those of you vacationing at a tropical paradise, it is really cold here in the metroplex.  The season starts this weekend and the good news is it will actually warm up to playable conditions... if the weather man is right.  If the weather remains like t is as I write this...  well, the old joints and muscles are in trouble.

Lets get to the new season to discuss.

4.5+
We have the usual suspects with Harllee, Reiman and Rossouw as the favorites.  Last year, Arcaria broke through and made it interested.  Sweeney had to move up and split up after a trip to Nationals.

Rossouw has pared his roster back to a manageable size of 18.  With 9 matches to play, this should be workable.  He has good 5.0s of Barrick and Lama as well as several good 4.5s like Flores to complement his 5.0s.  He should make another trip to city playoffs and have a good chance to make it to sectionals.

Harllee has a lot of the same players back.  He has Bruno Braga as a 5.0 to build around and that is a really good place to start.  Few 5.0s are going to beat Braga... especially at 40s.  He has a lot of good 4.5s to work with as well.  I see this team getting to city playoffs too.

Reiman has Foster as a 5.0.  He is solid but Braga should have his way with him.   Patrick Rea is his other 4.5 but I am not familiar with him so I am not sure what to make of him.   He has several solid but not really playoff 4.5s on his roster.  This team may or may not be there at the end.

Arcaria has some pieces but with this current roster, it is not enough.  Buoni as his lone 5.0 is very solid.  If he adds another top notch 5.0, he can compete.  He has a chance but he will be fighting but needs a piece or two.

Of the other teams, nobody has enough to be serious contenders.

4.0
At 4.0, it appears the epicenter for Dallas middle age tennis is Garland Tennis Center.  There are two flights.

4.0 Flight A: This appears to be a three team race between Garland/Russell (formerly known as Garland/Sisk), Brookhaven/Bartlett and Greenhill Ohl.

Garland/Russell: They have decided to take a page out of the Marc Rossouw playbook and start with 21 on the roster.  There are only 7 matches to be played so playing time might be slim for several players.  They do have some good 4.0s with Tony Le, Mike Zackary, Pat Teterud, Mark Sweeney and Duane Covell.  I really expect this team to win the flight.

Brookhaven/Bartlett:  This roster looks more or less the same as it has looked for a long time.  I expect them to be competitive every week with an outside chance at winning.

Greenhill/Ohl:  I could write the exact same thing about this as Brookhaven as the roster looks more or less the same and they will be competitive but only an outside chance at winning.

The other teams in the flight are just playing for fun.

4.0/Flight B:  This flight is plain bad.  I guess it is a two team race between Garland/Kanchi and Springpark/Walters.

Garland/Kanchi:  They only have 9 on the roster.  Of the players I know, they aren't bad.  One is from San Antonio so that more or less makes this a team of 8.  Without some additions, I see some defaulted lines in their future.  This team has enough to make it to playoffs but is desperate for some depth.

Springpark/Walters:  This team definitely brings a lot of 'experience' in both tennis and life.  I actually think they could field a very good Super Seniors team.

Canyon Creek/Patterson:  They have a few pieces but not nearly enough.

The truth is this flight is fairly wide open.  Kanchi has the best top talent but no depth.  The others have a few pieces but little in the line of top end 4.0.

In the end, Garland/Russell is the favorite to get to sectionals.

In the mean time, stay warm!  It is Texas in January, if you don't like the weather, just be patient.  It will change soon enough.

Tri-Level Recap... Sisk Rolls

Tri-Level was this weekend and in a not very big surprise, Sisk and Voldemort won again.  Vnce Kingsley took second with his only loss to Sisk's juggernaut.  The most impressive part is Sisk won the vent without dropping a line.  Actually, they did not drop a single set and only 51 games.  In 15 total possible lines, that is an impressive average of better than 6-2, 6-2.   One loss runner-up Kingsley dropped 134 games.

I have to think this is the best team in Texas and expect to see them do well at sectionals.

Ratings Countdown

I know a lot of people (especially a few captains) think about rating release like a kid does Christmas.  Well, there is an official countdown clock on Tennis Link.  Tomorrow night at 11:00 is the rating release.

I have been needing to make a new post but this fall format and people just playing with nothing to gain makes it uninteresting.  Let me know what you guys think of the fall.

Regardless, it was time for a new post and with Tri-Level and 40s coming up, it is time to re-engage the blog.

 

 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY !!!

 

 

It's hard to imagine, but 10 years ago today, August 31, 2007, the Dallas Tennis Blog was formed.  Founded by Carey Bazan, aka "Lucky Thunder", an idea was put into action and became life.  His inspiration came from the Houston tennis blog, but has long survived, seeing that the last post in Houston was back in August 2014.  Thanks to Murray, we still have a heart beat. 

Not much has changed over the decade.  Houston was still the talk of beating out Dallas in Sectionals, and a man name Bender was winning National titles.  While some of the players have changed, the topics have remained the same.  Complaints of tanking, playing out of level, year end ratings, Tri-level, Combo, etc. was just as alive back then as it is now.  (No- I didn't forget mixed.  It just wasn't much of a topic until we entered a narcissistic society.)

To celebrate, I thought it would be appropriate to recognize the contributors, and then provide you with some of my favorite blog posts over the past 10 years.  You can click on the Blog Archives to revisit if you so wish.

Recognition to past contributors:


  Carey Bazan aka Lucky Thunder (Founding Father)

     Corey Noel (CoreDawg aka Nancy)

     Marc Klamecki


              Mark Roussouw

          B-Mo

      Captain Fantastic


    Murray Langston


TOP 10 BLOG POSTS: 

10)  Monday, July 20, 2009  3.5 City Wrap Up  - It was the beginning of using pictures in the blog post and was aimed at me, spawning me to begin anonymously blogging as Captain Fantastic.

http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2009/07/35-city-wrap-up.html

9)  Monday, December 1, 2008  Year End Ratings About To Drop - Coming at the top with number of comments - 357.  Yes the blog was alive and well back then.  Complaints about getting Benchmark rankings. 

http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2008/12/2008-year-end-ratings-about-to-drop.html

8)  Sunday, May 23, 2010  Working the System   - Roussouw submits his Jerry McGuire essay.  Unfortunately, Klamecki switched to Subscribe, and when he switched back, all comments were lost.  I would have loved to have read those.

http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2010/05/working-system.html


7)  Wednesday, February 19, 2014  THE LORD OF THE RATINGS – THE RETURN OF THE KELLY CASTING CALL FOR DTA PRODUCTIONS  -  Not because this was about Kelly, but because it was the birth of Murray Langston and him graciously taking over the blog.

http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-lord-of-ratings-return-of-kelly_19.html

6)  Unfortunately, it was another post with suppressed comments, but miraculously, when year end ratings come out, the system is overloaded and locks up, and Bob Somabut gets 10 of his players that were bumped up and benchmarked, appealed back down a level.  And Kelly thinks he is special.

Since I can't find the link, I regress with one of my drunken Christmas poems:

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 - Twas the Night before Christmas


http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2011/12/twas-night-before-christmas.html

5)  Saturday, October 8, 2011 - Good Readings for the Fall - I truly think this is good advice, and if more adhered to my suggestions, there would be less complaining about the tanking.

http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2011/10/good-readings-for-fall.html

4) Monday, October 14, 2013 - Dallas 3.5s Bring home 1st 40 and Over National Title

Just because


http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2013/10/dallas-35s-bring-home-1st-40-and-over.html

3)  Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - Team Arcaria Finishes 2nd at Tri-Level Nationals - A personal knock on me and had me reveal my identity.  Looking back, outside of the jealous tone, it is kind of funny, especially having my face superimposed in all of those historic pictures.  I hold no grudges and see Klamecki each year at the Bent Tree Indoor Classic. 

 http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2012/03/team-arcaria-finishes-2nd-at-tri-level.html

2)  Sunday, July 18, 2010 - Star Wars 7 - Decimation of the Sith (aka GTC) - What can I say.  It was an epic time, and an epic post.

http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2010/07/star-wars-7-decimation-of-sith-aka-gtc.html


AND THE NUMBER ONE BLOG PLOST ...........

1)  Sunday, August 5, 2012 - Hitler Plays USTA league tennis in Dallas - Not sure who produced this, but did create the rave in Dallas.

http://dallasleaguetennis.blogspot.com/2012/08/this-made-made-me-lol-little-bit-enjoy.html

I am sure there are several other posts that could have been listed, especially some of Murray's recent writings, or the show-down between Gerber and Bazan.  However, I haven't had the time to stay up-to-date on things or go back and read them all.  These were just some that stuck in my mind.   I hope you enjoy!

Thanks Carey --- to 10 more years?!!